WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 3] 
especially man, live upon the Indus, and are justly termed aquatics 
from the Commissioner and the General down to the last Bhang 
and Mohana. 
The Indus, as abovementioned, has in Sind no affluents but distribu- 
taries. Near the coast these become mouths, things common enough 
with great rivers. But higher up they are canals under human 
control, or “lets,” that is natural and uncontrolled overflows. 
Those hollows, in which, after the subsidence of the snow-fed inun- 
dation, water still remains, are called ‘“‘Dhands” (arms) and 
“ Kolabs” (deep waters), and all of these swarm with life. 
The highest aquatic mammal after Homo sapiens, is the Otter 
(Lutra nair). It is rathera puzzle with the otters that the same spe- 
cies seems to vary greatly in size with locality. The otter of Sind is 
nearly as big againas that of our peninsular provinces, but no larger 
than in Bengal or Malabar. But the same occursin Europe. Ionce 
had an admittedly large specimen weighed on a particular river in 
Ireland, and it turned the scale at 16lbs. avoirdupois. But weights 
exceeding 20lbs are common in the British Isles, and you may see 
25lbs. and 28lbs. recorded in the (field often enough. ‘The lesson 
is that the genus Lutra and its species are subject to great local 
variation in this respect. 
The next aquatic mammal is a very strange one, the Indus Porpoise, 
or “ Bullan” (Platanista gangetica). I prefer to treat this remark- 
able animal as identical with the Gangetic species, because all I have 
to say will apply to either, and the specific distinction is very doubt- 
ful, consisting chiefly in the superior size of the few specimens 
obtained from the Indus. It is very difficult of capture, as are all 
the freshwater cetacea, and I myself exhausted money and influence 
in vain in the effort to obtain a specimen. A native chief is said to 
have been more fortunate, and to have applied his captive to a most 
extraordinary use. 
The “Bullan” resembles the ordinary mammalian dolphins proper 
(not the fish wrongly so called) in general outline, having a fusiform 
body and long pointed snout, with teeth in both jaws. It differs 
from them in having little or no back fin, and from the common 
porpoise of Hurope, and the Steno and Neomeris of our seas in 
having (asalready mentioned) along rostrum or beak-like snout, The 
same difference (with minor ones) distinguishes it from the nearest 
other freshwater cetacea; (Orcella fluviatilis of the lrrawady) and 
on the whole its nearest living relatives are supposed to be the Hy- 
